12-Years of Service @ GE or My Resume as a Blog [June 2024]

Last month, May 2024, I reached 12 years of service with the same company, General Electric or GE . As a millennial, I am always met with shock and awe that I have been employed with the same company for so long. Reflecting on my seven roles across 3 GE Businesses, I'm outlining my career journey at GE.

After I obtained my bachelor's in electrical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University (#AggiePride) in 2012, I joined the Edison Engineering Development Program at GE Transportation, a Wabtec company . At the time, GE had the nation's number-one leadership development program, so why not?

Years 0-2: Design Engineer at GE Transportation (Erie, PA)

I spent two years in Erie, Pennsylvania, in four different design engineering roles while taking continuing education classes led by GE experts. My favorite role was in Propulsion, where I got to redesign an alternator for a locomotive for a customer in South Africa.

My least favorite role was in Off-Highway Vehicles, where I spent most of the time modifying electrical schematics to ensure that they reflected field production units. After that role, I developed an even better attention-to-detail skill.

Years 2-4: Production Support Engineer at GE Transportation (Fort Worth, TX)

At the end of the program, I accepted the full-time offer to work as a Production Support Engineer in Fort Worth, Texas. I was the very first Edison Engineer to roll off the program at the site. It was one of my most challenging roles and taught me the most about myself and my decision-making. I helped launch new products and supported the one-million-square-foot production site as we grew from one shift into two shifts.

Years 4-8.5: Brilliant Factory Project Leader at GE HealthCare (Waukesha, WI)

After two years in that role, for personal reasons, I decided to move back to my hometown (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and landed the role as the first Brilliant Factory Project Leader for GE HealthCare . Brilliant Factory is the internal/GE-invented name for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industry 4.0.

I helped to co-create this role (while in the role) with my manager, set the goals for the business, and developed the roadmap, which led to more hires on our team. This role felt like working at a #startup but within a vast company. It was the epitome of intrapreneurship. If that term is new to you, it refers to a system that allows an employee to act like an entrepreneur within the organization to pursue an innovative product or service.

I researched new technologies, developed the IIoT system architecture for the enterprise, and traveled around the world to various manufacturing sites to implement my ideas and connect machines. This was my first step into project management and data visualization in Tableau.

In addition to implementing the project, I participated in several internal hackathons and data-thons, helping our digital team create Brilliant Factory apps for our manufacturing end-users.

Years 8.5-12[Now]: Staff Technical Project Manager at GE Corporate (Remote)

Since I had so much autonomy and it felt like a startup, I spent almost five years in that role. A number of life milestones happened during that period, which made it easier to remain in that role. But I was ready for something different.

After unofficially doing it in my last role, I wanted to develop my technical project management skills. I joined the GE Corporate team as the first Staff Technical Project Manager focused on Operational Technology (OT) and Cyber Asset Intelligence. I helped revise the new Technology Asset Management Policy of manufacturing assets outlining the cyber incident response and federated data flow for the entire enterprise (which comprised eight different GE Businesses at the time).

Now, the bulk of my time is spent developing asset management capacity within other teams as we progress in the separation of GE standalone businesses. I also lead the Data Quality Team for our asset management platform to ensure the data is accurate and high trust for our end-users and develop all of the enterprise communications on behalf of the team.

In Conclusion … A Lot of Firsts

Within these 12 years, I've held seven positions and worked for three different GE Businesses (GE Transportation, GE Healthcare, and now GE Corporate Holdings). Besides the flexibility and work culture, the majority of my time at GE has been me stepping into the role as the "first" and leaning into it. It's truly a blessing to work at a company where I can get as technical and nerdy as I want and spend time innovating and feeding the entrepreneurial spirit.

Thank you for reading. And, in case you wanted to see my actual resume, here you go 😊.

Peace,

Marcell Jackson (He/Him/His)

Staff Technical Project Manager

GE Corporate Holdings

DIVERSITY is a fact.

INCLUSION is an action.

BELONGING is an outcome.

EQUITY is a must.